Comings, Goings & Promotions

Samuels to Direct Program in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience

Martin A. Samuels, MD, has announced his intention to step down from the chair of the Department of Neurology to become the full-time director of the hospital’s Program in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience (PIN). PIN aims to facilitate work in the neurosciences that crosses the traditional boundaries of departments and divisions.

Samuels joined the Brigham in 1977 and served 11 years as chief of the Neurology Service at the VA Medical Centers in West Roxbury and Brockton before being appointed chief of the Neurology Division at the Brigham in 1988. He was the founding chair of the Department of Neurology which separated from the Department of Medicine in 1995. During his long tenure, the Department of Neurology has expanded enormously, now comprising several hundred faculty and staff, 17 divisions, a large and prestigious residency and many fellowships in subspecialties of neurology.

Samuels is the Miriam Sydney Joseph Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. As a neurologist and internist and creator of the Manual of Neurological Therapeutics, Samuels has long been interested in treatment of nervous system disease, especially in the interface between neurology and the rest of medicine. As director of the PIN, he will help the program span many departments, divisions and programs to make inroads into the understanding and treatment of neurological disease that would be otherwise isolated within individual department structures.

“The Brigham has a century-long record of excellence in the neurosciences, initiated by Harvey Cushing who was the first chair of Surgery at the hospital,” said Samuels. “The PIN is an icon of this longstanding commitment to the treatment of nervous system disorders, now housed in the unique Building for Transformational Medicine, which embodies the vision of interdisciplinary care, training and science.”

A Harvard Medical School/BWH committee will conduct an international search for as the next chair of the Department of Neurology. In the interim, Samuels will to serve as both department chair and director of the PIN.